Re: Etchings

: How did the phrase "Want to come up and see my etchings?"
become the double entendre that people use today? Was it part of some comedy routine?
Who started it?

Speculation about its origin is found in Eric Partridge's "Dictionary
of Catch Phrases":

"'Come up and see my etchings' was, perhaps, orig. a US students'
catchphrase that rapidly gained a much wider currency: throughout the US, thence
in Can. and UK and, prob. indicative of US influence in 1943-5, Aus. Formerly
I suspected that it was prompted by [Mae West's] 'come up and see me sometime!';
yet it could well have been the other way about. In his letter . . . Prof. S.
H. Monk writes: "I am certain that I knew this sentence by the midtwenties. Actually
I knew no one who had a collection of etchings or who was suave enough to seduce
a young thing in this manner. But the phrase certainly floated in and out of cartoons
and jokes. To me, it has an 1890-ish or Edwardian tone, and I suspect that it
existed in 'sophisticated' urban society before it ever reached me. I think that
this can still sometimes be heard, but it is definitely 'corny'."
Perhaps confirmatory
of Prof. Monk's shrewd remarks is the fact that in Susannah Centlivre's comedy,
'The Man's Bewitched' , Act III, where Belinda, Maria, Constant and Lovely
are in the study, and Lovely exclaims, 'Interrogating! Nay, then 'tis proper to
be alone; there is a very pretty Collection of Prints in the next Room, Madam,
will you give me leave to explain them to you?' Maria answers, 'Any Thing that
may divert your Love--Subject.'
It should, however, be noted that this catchphrase
perhaps derives from Surreyside melodrama--the villain enticing the innocent maiden."